Is Christmas Dead?In Defense of the Faith
Saturday, December 01, 2012J.L. Robb

In the next three weeks we are going to hear a lot about the ''War on Christmas'', at least those of us who watch news. That would be all Omega Letter members and readers for sure. You probably won’t see it on Entertainment Tonight and much of the ''main stream'' media unless FOX News brings it up. We all know that FOX will though. . .

On April 8, 1966, TIME Magazine essentially asked the same question on the cover of their infamous magazine, headlined as, “Is God Dead?” The ‘60s really changed things, especially the late ‘60s; but its birth lay in the early ‘60s.

So I guess the question should be, is there a War on God? That would be the Abrahamic God, not Buddha or Vishnu or Koresh. When did this war start and why?

For those who do not believe in God, the belief in a devil, or Satan, becomes irrelevant. To those who do believe, we know just how slick he is. He is so slick, he has convinced many believers that he doesn’t exist at all? So then we have to wonder, “Is the devil dead?” There are churches today who do not believe in Satan.

“For the most part, you don’t hear mainline Protestants talking about Satan, the devil or the demonic,” said Jaime Clark-Soles, associate professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology. “I think we’ve handed that kind of language over to the fundamentalists.”

So that’s how he did it. He made himself dead first and then began his conquest to do the same to God. It has been an ongoing battle for years. According to biblical teaching, the battle has gone on almost since the beginning of everything. In the book of Job, Job’s misery wasn’t a result of him disappointing God, it was a result of a contest between God and Satan. At one time they were friends, before Satan decided he wanted the throne. Yet some Bible scholars think he didn’t, and doesn’t, exist except in the wee minds of “fundamentalists.” We have wee minds; they have huge minds, at least in their minds.

In 2005, John Gibson wrote “The War on Christmas.” I bought it as soon as it came out and found it very informative, and interesting. I have been following the subject since and asking a few questions. Like:

Does a store say Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas or both? At various “tree lightings,” are they lighting Holiday Trees or Christmas Trees? When there are TV ads or newspaper ads for Christmas, is Jesus ever mentioned? Are chestnuts roasting on an open fire and cash registers ringing, or is anyone talking about the Reason for the Season? Alas, there does seem to be a bit of Christophobia going on. In very few ads today will anyone see a manger scene, a star of Bethlehem or Mary on a donkey. It’s sad but true. There is a war on Christ.

From the Boston Globe, December 16, 2004:

The ACLU contends the creche, depicting the birth of Jesus in a Bethlehem manger, violated separation of church and state and its presence on the grounds of a public school sent a message that the schools endorse Christianity. ''Kids being driven to school or being dropped off see it and think it's part of school," said Sarah Wunsch, a lawyer for the ACLU. ... The creche that had been at the Balch School lawn was owned and maintained by the town for many years. After complaints from civil liberties advocates, a private community group, the South Norwood Committee, assumed ownership of the creche.

The “crèche” had been there 75 years.

From FOX News Latino, December 8, 2011, the Freedom From Religion Foundation fought to have a nativity scene removed from in front of the courthouse in Athens, Texas.

How could this have happened? Many Christians that I talk to blame the Jewish folk, but it’s not the Jewish people, it’s the atheists. Here is what Ben Stein, a prominent Jewish commentator, has to say about Christmas, Christmas trees and manger scenes.

From a previous column, “The ‘60s became the anti-Vietnam it’s-all-about-me generation because there was no way college kids were going to go to war for the U.S. They were too busy burning flags and throwing Molotov cocktails at National Guard troops and those of us who served; and having sex, lots and lots of sex. There certainly was no time for God.”

After the election, I saw a post from an Obama voter gloating about the election. Of course, the GOP would’ve been gloating too had we won. The young man posted on a social media site that America should “beware of the GOP,” because “the Republicans want to take us back to the ‘50s.” I checked the man’s profile, and he was 38. He didn’t have a clue what the ‘50s were like.

I am thankful that I was a kid in the ‘50s where “Winter Break” was Christmas Vacation and “Spring Break” was Easter Vacation. I am glad that in elementary school we had Christmas trees and not holiday trees, and we had manger scenes rather than Macy’s ads. We got to see “Jesus” movies and say the Lord’s Prayer.

Unbelievers love to point out that “evergreen trees are pagan symbols,” as though Christians didn’t know that. They have the inability to comprehend that Christians do not use the trees as “pagan symbols,” but as symbols of our love for the Spirit of Christmas. That would be Jesus the Christ.

His last name wasn’t Christ, and in today’s world it would be Josephson or Davidson. Christ was his “position,” the Messiah who came to offer us a way out from the burden of 632 biblical rules that none could follow. None could follow all those rules except Jesus, the “only begotten Son of God.” He is the reason for the season, not paganism. It’s a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree.

Is Christmas dead? He’s workin’ on it. The devil you say? Yep, the devil I say. Right under our noses and yet, we do nothing about it. When a single person or a “small” group demand that a Christmas scene be removed, at Christmas for Pete’s sake, from “public land,” why don’t we go to the streets and demand that the scenes be put back because it “hurts our feelings” that they were removed? Why hasn’t the Christian community protested that the Founding Fathers had no intention for their church-and-state addendum to prevent government institutions from showing respect for Christianity? The Founding Fathers were Christians after all.

My research found the following Founding Father quotes:

"While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian." --The Writings of Washington, pp. 342-343. George Washington

"Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God ... What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be." --Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9.

"Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System." --Adams wrote this on June 28, 1813, excerpt from a letter to Thomas Jefferson.

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever." --Adams wrote this in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, 1776.

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event." --Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237. Thomas Jefferson

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."--The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 385.

"Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. ... Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us." --History of the United States of America, Vol. II, p. 229. --John Hancock

"Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped.

That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see;

But I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed; especially as I do not perceive, that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure." --Benjamin Franklin wrote this in a letter to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale University on March 9, 1790.

War on Christmas? War on God? One would have to be blind not to think so, and I am sure the ACLU petitioners take their Christmas pay and days off. But the war is on our culture, the American Way. When 95% of a country’s population is “Christian or Jewish” then it’s a Christian country. Do the math. The ‘60s changed all that, and now we are only about 79% “Christian or Jewish.”

There should be a War on anti-Founding Fatherism, not on God. He is not happy with our lack of support.